Doctor Who: Into the Fire (part one of two)
by vrodli
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are in England during the 16th century. While there, they meet a young woman named Claire, who has been haunted by mysterious fires throughout her life. Is this young woman unlucky? Or is something more sinister behind her painful past?


**Hello, everyone. This is my first attempt at a fanfic, so POLITE constructive criticism is welcome (as are comments). I originally intended this to be a one shot but decided to split it in two when it got too long. I do not own Dr. Who, the TARDIS (I wish I did), or any other character/creature/location that is part of the Dr. Who canon. However, Claire, Lord Grayson, the Incendians, and Zyridion are mine. Enjoy :)**

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_Hmmm… It's that strange doctor again. I wonder what he's up to today._ Claire watched as the man walked by, paying no attention to her work.

"Claire, you must stop spying on the Doctor. My roses won't tend themselves, you know," chuckled an elderly man.

"Oh, yes milord," Claire replied.

Lord Grayson smiled as the young woman resumed her work. She loved roses, almost as much as she loved Lord Grayson. He had taken her in when nobody else would. He alone had no fear of her.

Claire had been born to a kitchen maid and a stable boy. She never had much as a little girl, but she was happy then. She had been taught from an early age to follow in her mother's footsteps. That came to an end when Claire was five. She was working in the kitchen, learning to make porridge with her mother, when a log shifted in the fireplace, sending embers flying in every direction. Though most landed harmlessly, one went unnoticed in a pile of straw.

After dinner, Claire was sent out to gather some firewood. As she opened the door, a light breeze hit the ember and turned it from a smolder into a fire. When the girl returned, the cottage was already being devoured by the wild inferno. By the time the blaze was brought under control, Claire realized that she was now alone.

By the age of ten, Claire was considered a cursed child. As the sole survivor of three massive fires, suspicion had begun to follow her. No family, rich or poor, would take her in. Everyone feared the cursed child. Everyone, that is, except Lord Grayson. He pitied the child and, ignoring the rumors and superstitions, he took her into his house as a servant.

Claire never forgot her master's kindness. She repaid it as best she could by learning the art of tending to and caring for her master's precious garden. The garden was actually four separate gardens connected by a clean, secluded pathway. It was in the northwest garden, the rose garden, where Claire was working when she first saw the man who called himself "The Doctor."

He was a strangely dressed man. He wore a short waistcoat made of tanned cowhide, rough black pants, and black boot-like things on his feet. His hair was also oddly short. His companion, a woman of all things, was also unusual. With yellow hair and a sort of powder all over her face, she was almost as strange as the doctor. Stranger, even, because she wore pants!

The Doctor and his companion usually kept to themselves, so nobody knew much about them. Even the town gossip could find nothing to talk about. This made Claire wary. Her thoughts began to wander around what little was known about the Doctor as she continued to prune the roses.

"Hello, Lord Grayson. How are you today?" The question made Claire jump. As she quickly scanned for the source of the unfamiliar voice, Lord Grayson chuckled.

"Quite well, Doctor. Quite well. And how are you this fine morning?"

"I am very well, thank you," the Doctor replied. "My, what beautiful roses you have here. Your little gardener has quite a talent for them."

"Oh, yes! Yes indeed! My roses were never this beautiful before dear little Claire joined my house. Not even when I was able to tend to them myself," the old Lord excitedly proclaimed.

Claire blushed at the praise. She hated it when he bragged about her. But before he could continue, the Doctor's attention was called away by his companion. _Now what is she in such a tizzy about,_ Claire wondered. As she watched the Doctor's expression grow more concerned, she strained to hear their conversation.

"Problem… rumors… girl… fires…"

She stopped listening after "fires." They were talking about her. The rumors had finally reached them. Her heart dropped as the Doctor turned to look at her with a blank expression on his face. Something must have been wrong. Something that, more likely than not, involved her.

"Doctor, we need to talk, NOW," Rose huffed as she tried to catch her breath.

"What is it?"

"It's the butcher. He's gone!"

"Gone? What do you mean gone? When? How? Where?"

"I don't know! He's just… gone!"

"Gone, um, okay. Did you or anyone else notice anything out of the ordinary?" The Doctor continued to ask questions, growing more anxious as he learned what little he could from Rose. Something about this sounded familiar. There were stories like this floating around the village about similar disappearances.

"Rose, this may be a bigger problem than we anticipated. There are stories, rumors, about similar disappearances in the past. Each story centers on a little girl. In the end, she is the only one remaining, the only survivor of what seems to be three separate fires. Each one starts with a small fire quickly growing beyond control and ends with no survivors. Not even their bodies are found. The only person to be found is one, small little girl."

"Are you saying the little girl could be doing this?" Rose asked as she nervously glanced around.

"No, I'm saying she may be a target. If that's true, she could be in danger," he replied as he turned to look at Claire.

"Claire, did you hear me?"

"Huh? Oh! I apologize milord. I was concentrating on the roses."

The elderly lord chuckled at Claire's absentmindedness, seemingly unaware of her anxiety. "I said the weather has taken a sudden turn. Perhaps we should venture indoors before the rain arrives." Turning towards the road, Lord Grayson shouted out "Doctor! Would you and Miss Rose care to ride out the storm with a lovely cup of tea?"

"I would be honored sir, but is seems that an emergency has popped up in the village. I must attend to it and ensure that it doesn't get out of hand. If, however, you would allow it, I think Rose and Claire might enjoy each other's company."

"Allow it? I encourage it!" Lord Grayson bellowed as a merry laugh shook his ever growing belly. "What a splendid idea!" He knew Claire had no friends among the other servant girls. They were silly, superstitious little things that believed in Claire's apparent curse. Though nothing extraordinary or harmful had happened since Claire arrival, as the gentleman often pointed out, the servants persisted in their fears. They insisted that nothing had happened **yet** because Claire had been given no reason to harm anyone.

Claire herself didn't seem to pay much attention to the superstitious maids. They usually left her alone, which Claire often appreciated. It was a nice change from the villagers who would scream at her and call her a witch. Despite this, she did get lonely sometimes. But not even her loneliness made her comfortable being alone with Miss Rose. She consented solely to make Lord Grayson happy.

"This way, Miss Rose. How do you like your tea?"

"Are you sure you cannot stay Doctor?" Lord Grayson asked.

"Quite. Perhaps another time," the Doctor replied for the third time. The elderly man's persistence was beginning to wear on the Doctor's patience. He needed to get to the village. Something was there, hiding. Waiting. He needed to find it and there wasn't much time. He also needed to figure out what exactly **it** was. But before he could accomplish anything, he had to escape from Lord Grayson.

"Yes, yes. Another time, then," sighed the gentleman. "Well, the sooner you get there, the sooner you can return! Off you go, sir!"

"Indeed," the Doctor said, repressing the irritation in his voice. Upon his release, the Doctor ran back to the heart of the village toward the butcher's shop. His fears were confirmed after a quick study of the shop. The butcher was nowhere to be found. Strangely enough, there were no bodies at all. Not even the animal carcasses could be found. No blood could be seen either.

The doctor ran to the back of the shop where the meats to be dried were hung over a fire pit. As he suspected, those were missing as well. But something else was off. The fire pit was unusually tidy, save seven little grey spots just barely visible against the stone floor. As he studied these spots, he began to notice more scattered around. The longer he looked at them, the more a sort of pattern seemed to form.

"Footprints?" he wondered aloud. He took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned a set of spots. Within seconds, his theory was confirmed. "Incendians. That isn't good." The Doctor looked back at the fire pit and scanned it with the screwdriver. As he did so, the surrounding area began to shift and shimmer. The view changed to that of an intricately decorated drawing room. Looking around, he noticed more footprints on the carpet of the new room. They were leading over to a table overlooking a view of a rain-kissed garden. The table had a modest tea setting on it. On either side of the table were two chairs occupied by Rose and Claire.

With no time to do anything else, the Doctor shouted as loud as he could.

"So, Claire," Rose began, attempting to start a conversation. "How did you meet Lord Grayson?"

"He rescued me from the orphanage when I was ten," explained Claire. Anticipating the next question, she quickly added, "I don't really like talking about that. What about you? How did you meet the Doctor?"

"Well, he saved my life," Rose answered, a fond smile touching the edge of her lips.

"Really? How sick were you?"

"Oh, no. I wasn't sick. I was being attacked."

"Attacked? By who?"

"Um, well, it's sort of difficult to explain. You see, they weren't really… people. They were creatures," Rose said, attempting to explain without saying too much.

"And the Doctor fought them off? Did he slay them? Is he a knight?!" Claire was now having some difficulty containing herself. She had heard many stories about knights and their heroic adventures. The thought that the Doctor might be one instantly aroused her interest.

Rose laughed as she answered the barrage of questions. "We ran at first-"

"He ran away?! What sort of knight is that?!"

"Let me finish! We only ran at first. The Doctor needed to figure out how to stop the creatures from attacking other people. Once he knew how, he sought them out and stopped them for good. As for being a knight, he is sort of like one. If he finds someone who needs his help, he will find a way."

"Wow! How did he stop them?"

_Oh, dear. How am I going to explain this_, Rose silently asked herself. "Umm…"

**"ROSE! CLAIRE! LOOK OUT!"**

Before the women had time to react, a creature appeared over them and smashed the tea table. Swinging around, the creature threw Rose against a wall, knocking her unconscious. As Claire got to her feet, she looked at the monster that was attacking them. It stood about seven feet tall, with long, thin limbs resembling burnt logs. Its skin looked like bark covered in ash, with spots of red glowing out between cracks in its body. The creature's face appeared to be covered in soot. The eyes were a wild blue that seemed to burn everything they rested on. As the creature looked at Claire, it opened its mouth, causing the skin around it to crack and splinter like rotted wood.

"Great Prince," the creature hissed in a dry, halting voice. "Your servant has found the human girl. She is within his reach. Shall he take her?"

"Yes, the servant shall take the human," replied a second, unseen creature.

Claire managed to get out a short scream before everything went black.

"Oh, ow," moaned Rose as she sat up. She looked around the now empty room and began to worry. "Claire? Claire, where are you," she called. A sudden thump grabbed Rose's attention. As she turned around, the fireplace began to shift and shimmer. Quickly grabbing one of the broken legs from the table, Rose assumed a defensive position.

"Stay back," she shouted. "I am armed and quite capable of defending myself! I'm warning you! STAY BACK!" Raising the wooden leg, Rose readied herself to whack whatever was coming through the fireplace. As a form started to merge, she let out what was intended to be a battle cry and rushed towards the alien. With a high, wild swing, Rose suddenly threw herself off balance, coming within inches of bashing in the Doctor's head.

"WHOA!" cried the Doctor. "I'm the good guy, remember?!"

"I'm sorry, you scared me," Rose replied with a sheepish smile.

"Well, be careful. A stunt like that could get you killed. Or engaged to a Krytarican warlord." The Doctor shuddered at the thought.

"Pft, Krytaricans. What a sloppy bunch. You always know when they have been around."

The Doctor and Rose whirled around to see who had joined them. To their surprise, Lord Grayson stood where the voice emerged from.

"Lord Grayson," the Doctor said. "How do you know about the Krytaricans?"

With a heavy sigh, the old man closed his eyes and removed a signet ring, revealing his natural form. "I am Incendian. Please, before you speak, allow me to explain myself."

"Please, do," snapped a frightened Rose.

"I will try to make this short. If Claire has been captured by the ones I am thinking of, we don't have much time to help her."

"Then reactivate your cloaking device and explain on the way to the TARDIS," ordered the Doctor.

"Of course. Ah, may I ask where this 'TARDIS' is located?" inquired the Incendian.

"It's on the outskirts of the village on the other side," replied the Doctor.

"Can you be more specific?"

"No," replied the Doctor.

"Then can you tell me where the portal leads to?" asked the older man, pointing to the fireplace.

"It led to the butcher's shop. Why?"

"Because, being in the center of the village, we can get to your ship faster from there than we can from here."

"Fantastic!" cried the doctor, as he headed back through the portal.

"I must tell you," began the Incendian, as the trio ran to the edge of the village. "My people are a proud people. They think themselves superior to all other-"

"Yes, I know," interrupted the Doctor. "They're not very bright, either. No offence."  
"None taken. It is true."

"Could you possibly skip the history lesson and tell us what they want with Claire," asked Rose.

"Ah… yes… the poor… child. She… was marked… at a… young… age… for capture. Doctor… could we… rest for… a few… moments? This body is… not used… to… physical… exertion," the creature said as he gasped for breath.

"Very well," replied the Doctor. "But please, continue."

"Yes, yes, of course. Claire was five years old when she first escaped capture. A team of traders had been sent down to Earth to collect specimens and determine their fitness for servitude. Upon discovering that the humans had already been trained to serve, a second team was sent down to capture more. Claire's presence was, again, a coincidence. But her second escape caught our attention. A third team was sent down to specifically capture the child and any other humans around her. Again, she eluded us. Thank you, Doctor. I am quite rested now. Let us resume our trek."

"Were you ever a part of the teams that were sent down?" Rose asked.

"I gave orders, but no, I never went out myself," replied Grayson.

"Then how did you become directly involved with Claire?" inquired the Doctor.

"Ah, that was intended to be a scouting mission. I learned about the humans' reaction to Claire's repeated escapes and so decided to see if I could gain the child's trust and capture her in that way. Upon approval, I began searching the surrounding area and found a dying nobleman, the true Lord Grayson. Very few people knew of his illness, so when he passed, I was able to reconstruct myself in his likeness and resume his life as though he were still alive. Of course, this proved more difficult than I had anticipated. The servants quickly realized something was different about their master and called in a doctor. Thankfully, the doctor attributed the change to high fever and a near death experience."

"Right, I get the picture. Enough talking, we're here," said the doctor as he opened the door to a small hut. Walking inside, the Incendian saw a blue box that looked like it was barely large enough to hold the Doctor and Miss Rose. It certainly wasn't large enough to fit him as well.

"Are you coming?" asked the Doctor.

"How? This box is much too small for all of us," replied the alien.

"You'll see. Hurry it up!"

Still unsure, Lord Grayson stepped into the blue box.

"What… how… how can this be?!" He looked around him in amazement, attempting to understand how such a small box could fit so much. "How is it so much larger on the inside?"

The Doctor simply chuckled as he walked over to the control unit. After entering the coordinates of the Incendian home world, he turned to the creature and simply said, "You might want to hold on." The TARDIS began to shake and rumble and make an unusual sound. Within seconds the Doctor announced their arrival. "Welcome home," he said.

Stepping out of the TARDIS, the Incendian stared in horror at what he saw.

"Oh, Doctor. No, no, no, no, we are not on the right planet. There is no place on my world that looks like this," he insisted.

"No, I'm sorry. This is Zyridion," replied the Doctor.

Grayson began turning around in circles, taking in the new appearance of his home world. What was once a tranquil field of long, flowing blue and purple grass was now barren, covered in ash and cinders. The many hot springs he played in as a child were now as dry as a firewort's skin. The skies, once a rich sepia, were now a dull grey, choked with smoke from hundreds of distant wild fires.

"Lord Grayson," began Rose.

"No, please Miss Rose. Address me by my true name, Xiyloerughclmohnne." Seeing the confusion on Rose's face, he added "Xy, for short."

"Xy, we must get moving," the Doctor noted. "Where would they have taken Claire?"

"Claire will be in the barracks just outside of the capitol."


End file.
